Feb

26

1943

155th Battery R.A. hold German attack at Sidi Nsir

One of a series of pictures taken by German photographers following the battle of Sidi Nsir. German soldiers and wounded British soldiers at the northeast end of the Sidi Nsir station.

Another view of the British wounded and German soldiers at the northeast end of the station. A Kubelwagen ambulance has arrived and one stretcher has been loaded. The name of the station, Sidi Nsir, is visible on the station sign.

A photograph showing the southwest end of the train station along with motorcycles, halftrack, Kubelwagen, and a captured U.S. halftack in German service. In the background are the sheds and boxcar visible in other photographs.

A PzKpfw. III Ausf. N belonging to sPzAbt. 501 parked at the southwest end of the Sidi Nsir station.

Brigadier W.D.McN.Graham commanded 172nd Field Regiment Royal Artillery which comprised three batteries of 25 pounder guns. One of these batteries, the 155th, was based in the remote outpost of Sidi Nsir railway staion, alongside the infantry of 5th Battalion Hampshire Regiment.

On the 26th February 1943 the Germans attacked this position intending to break through the British lines in what could have been a major reverse for the Allies in Tunisia. The nine officers and one hundred and twenty six men of the 155th battery were to bear the brunt of the action, only nine of them would survive:

That night an abnormal number of green and white Very lights were seen, and by dawn the mountains and valleys all around were alive with the movement of troops, guns, tanks and infantry columns.

Soon after 6 a.m. on February 26th F Troop came under fire from mortars behind Chechak Ridge and replied with artillery fire. From this moment until dark, F Troop and to a lesser degree E Troop and the command posts, cooks’ shelters, etc, were under increasingly heavy mortar fire. At 7 a.m. enemy tanks attempted a direct assault down the main road from Mateur. F Troop engaged them, No 1 gun over open sights. Three tanks were hit and the road was blocked very conveniently just where it passed through a protective minefield. No 1 gun remained in action in spite of mortar and machine-gun fire. Captain Lawrence had decided to stick to his observation post on the Chechak ridge. Later his bravery in an attempt to escape from prison cost him his life.

At 9.40 a.m. Point 609 was heavily attacked by infantry. Communication was broken, WT sets smashed by enemy mortars and all lines cut. Lieutenant McGee was wounded and taken prisoner. (He subsequently escaped, reached the British lines in Italy and had the desperate ill-fortune to be drowned on his way back home.) From this moment on, the battery had but secondary ‘eyes’ over-looking the Mateur road, which must have been packed with enemy tanks and vehicles.

At 10.15 the CO visited Major Rawford on the gun position. F Troop was then under observation at a range of about 800 yards, and the track leading down to the command post was under very heavy and accurate mortar fire, rounds falling every three seconds or so. On all eight guns the CO found the detachments full of cheerful and determined courage.

Lieutenant Taylor and Sergeant Henderson (both of F Troop) in particular stood out by reason of their undaunted offensive spirit and the inspiring example they set. Sergeant Henderson was the No 1 of No 1 gun, specially placed on the top of the slope to deal with enemy tanks trying to use the Mateur-Sidi Nsir road. Taylor was the only officer on F Troop position, and he fought there until he was killed.

At this time Messerschmidts attacked from a height of about 200 feet and racked the gun positions with machine-gun fire and cannon fire. A number of vehicles were burning along the road Sidi Nsir- Hunt’s Gap, some of them filled with ammunition and ammonal; but the risks were ignored by officers and men alike as they cheerfully salvaged and carried the shells throughout the action. The wounded acted stoically; none grumbled or complained.

By noon enemy tanks (reported to number 30) and infantry had wormed their way into positions around the flanks of the guns. All this time the battery was completely occupied in engaging enemy infantry, machine guns and mortars, which were closing in on the Hampshire company positions.

The battery fired as many as 1,800 rounds per gun during the fierce, relentless day. Bren guns claimed four Messerschnidts – a triumphant reward for days of patient shooting on the balloon range at Lydd before leaving England.

The gallantry of the infantry, isolated on the tops of stony djebels, was superb. Both artillery and infantry were equally determined not to let their opposite numbers down.

At 3 p.m. a column of the enemy infantry penetrated between Hampshire Farm, two miles or so to the west of Sidi Nsir – Beja road, and the gun positions, and no more ammunition could pass. Twenty minutes later, under covering fire from some 13 tanks in hull-down positions (firing MGs and guns), more tanks attempted to advance down the main road. A Panzer Mk VI was leading. This was hit three times by Sergeant Henderson’s gun. A smaller Panzer Mk VI tried to pass, but this in turn was knocked out by No 1 gun. Yet a third tank was set on fire by the same gun.

The enemy held back, shelling and machine-gunning the positions, particularly F Troop, which was more easily spotted. Both troops were now in action against enemy tanks over open sights. But the tanks in hull-down positions had a great advantage over our guns and engaged them one by one, setting ammunition dumps, killing or wounding the detachments and eventually smashing the guns themselves.

At four o’clock another attack was put in from the Mateur road against F Troop’s southern flank. Sergeant Henderson smashed up the leading tank, but immediately afterwards he and his entire detachment were knocked out by a direct hit. (Sergeant Henderson recovered later in an enemy hospital.) The tanks then came on over the ridge in front of F Troop, who still had three guns in action and engaged the enemy at ranges of from 50 to 10 yards with Lieutenant Taylor, the fitter, cooks and all the survivors running from gun to gun and servicing each in turn.

At this stage the slope of the ground, which is steep and convex, gave the gunners some much needed help, for the attacking tanks were handicapped by their limited ability to depress their guns. F Troop fired for over an hour more before they were finally silenced. Then the tanks moved down the road past F Troop and surrounded E Troop.

At 6.30 p.m. Bren guns and at least one 25-pdr of E Troop were still in action against the enemy tanks at point blank range.

…

At 5.51 p.m. the last message came back over the wireless, ‘Tanks are on us’, followed a few seconds later by the single letter ‘V’ tapped out in Morse.
Many, both German and British, thought that the battle was over. But in fact it had scarcely begun. One third of the guns of 172nd Field Regiment had been lost, but a precious 24 hours had been gained and the gallant action of 155th Battery had instilled a healthy measure of caution into the enemy, whose one real chance of success lay in speed.

At dawn on the 27th, headed by a group of Mk VI tanks, the menacing columns moved westwards along the winding, narrow single-track road to Hunt’s Gap. But long before the enemy reached Hunt’s Gap he was pounded continuously by a heavily reinforced artillery which had made full use of the 24 hours’ respite to establish extra ‘eyes’ in the mountains, as well as large dumps of ammunition. The road by which the enemy advanced stretched mercilessly for miles and, as luck would have it, it rained and rained and rained. It was if the enemy had walked deliberately into a carefully baited trap. His heavy tanks floundered in the mud. They became trapped on a narrow road from which they could not turn back. Their drivers were panicked by concentrations of artillery fire from a daily increasing weight of field guns, until eventually they themselves completely blocked their only route of advance.

Then, for ten days, field and medium guns hurled thousands of shells upon them, smashing their tanks and vehicles on the road and mowing down their infantry when they tried to get round over the barren hills. The gunners of 153rd and 154th Batteries took a remorseless revenge for their comrades of 155th who had died at Sidi Nsir.

A German halftrack tows an antitank gun through a gap in the British wire. The halftrack has just passed through the intersection and is moving toward the Sidi Nsir station. The road to the left goes to Tebourba while the road to Beja is barely visible in the background behind the halftrack.

Another view of the group of German soldiers shown beside the halftrack.

German light flak setup in the road intersection. On the left, behind the 20-mm flak, is the road to Tebourba. The road and railroad to Beja is visible in the background with traffic moving in both directions.

A column of German troops and British prisoners leaves Sidi Nsir heading along the railroad tracks in the direction of Mateur. The Sidi Nsir station is visible in the background.

Hi from Cape Town, South Africa. My paternal Grandfather, William Henry Stevens died on 26 Feb 1943. He was with the 5th battalion Hampshire regiment and I think he was killed in the battle of Sidi Nsir. My late father was born on 15 July 1943, and never knew his dad. We have very little info on Grandad other than 2 or 3 photo’s. I wish I could find out more about him, but chances are quite slim I presume? He is remembered at the Medjez-el-Bab memorial. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2633111/stevens,-william-henry/

Hi. My father William Ledbury was a gunner but at the end was a signaller. He will be 100 next month and was also at Sidi N’Sir. He was one of the last three in their shelter with a german tank above. Major Raworth was with him. Dad has put his story on to the BBC WW2 War stories. Journey into the Unknown http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/categories/c55374/index.shtml
(Dad hadn’t used a computer before so it is a bit out of order but you can find your way)
The Major asked his two men what they thought… wait till dark then try to get away or…. So he told them to get rid of anything they had on them with addresses of home on he said ‘right follow me, put your hands up’. The tank commander (possibly Lang himself) was standing facing away from us but suddenly turned round and when he saw us said ‘Ah Inglishmen! kom, kom, queek, queek’
Upon being questioned by a German Commander (again possibly Lang) our Battery Commander said that he refused to believe that a battery of eight field guns had held up his armour all day. He was also complimentary of the Battery’s action and expressed admiration for the stand but he also enquired where the other two batteries were. At this, Major Raworth simply told him to go and find them! The German had been quite convinced that a whole field regiment of artillery had been holding him up.

My father was a gunnery officer with the 155th Battery. He arrived in North Africa in January and was involved in the battle of Sidi Nsir Tunisia on February 26th. He was killed that day and buried at Medjez el Bab. I have appreciated reading about this heroic battle by such a few men who were territorial soldiers.Sadly he was killed six months before I was born, so any information about him would be marvellous.

My dad, Albert Dean was torpedoed in the med on a troup carrier the Jean djjot which was hit by a uboat and sank. He was a gunner /driver with 155 battalion and also at Sidi Nsir, he then went on up through Italy to Monte Casino.

I have little information other than reading the book (The plain cook and the great showman) and would be grateful for confirmation of his role at Sidi and his route through Italy. Having now found this site I will look carefully at the photos mentioned.

I have been in touch with Royal Hampshire Regiment museum in Winchester about showing my movie towards the end Feb/early March to mark the 75th anniversary of the battle of Sidi N’Sir where my great grandfather fought.

It is something they and I would like to do somewhere in Hampshire and I would like to know what sort of interest there would be.

My full length movie ‘Charlie’s Letters’ depicts my great grandfather, Private Charlie Standing of the Hampshire Regiment’s war time experiences. He was captured by the Germans during the Sidi N’Sir battle, sent to Italy as a POW and escaped. It follows his and his wife’s story as he went on the run in occupied Italy and she was left at home in war torn Brighton with her young son, my grandfather, awaiting news. Details of the movie can be found on my website http://www.relsahproductions.co.uk

If you pick this up please let me know if a screening would be of interest.

Hello
I read this with a lot of interest as my son Elliott Hasler has made a feature film about his great grandfather Private Charlie Standing a private in Hampshire regiment who was captured at Sidi N’Nsir in Feb 43.

Charlie’s Letters documents Charlies capture and subsequent escape from a PoW camp in Italy. His movie also depicts the harsh realities of Charlie’s wife and young son in Brighton awaiting news.

He wants to show this at IWM London in Feb as a special anniversary for all those that fought there and their family 75 years on. The movie debuted at Brighton and Edinburgh festivals last year, it’s been critically acclaimed too.

My step grandmother’s brother Lance Corporal Walter Gironimo Ash was in the 5th Hampshires and died at Sidi N’sir 26 Feb 1943. Please add his name to any research and share if you come across records of him anywhere. Many thanks.

Hi – I am currently researching my family tree, and in particular, at the moment, my father’s activity during WW2. I found this web page whilst researching what exactly happened during the battle near Sidi N’sir, since my father (Bombardier John Mercer, was the radio op. with E Troop, 155 Battery and one of the nine survivors of the battle. He died in 2000, but had always been reluctant to speak of his war experiences, although eventually a few stories of his time in captivity came out. He did tell me, when I was still a very young man, about how terrifying it was to take part in the battle, knowing that the odds against success were impossible, and told me that the last thing he remembered was “seeing the whites of Jerry’s eyes, and the flash of their machine guns” as he sent one final message before they were overwhelmed. After the war, he refused to accept his medals, though I applied to the MoD for them after his death.

Could Nick Armstrong contact me from comments put on this site October 17 2015!!!I think we may be cousins???? Joe had a son billy (my dad) but marriage broke up and Violet and billy came to Australia when he was 8??? I just found dads original birth certificate with Joes army number 805738 if this is the same Joe please contact me on grant.armstrong@optusnet.com.au Thanks Grant.

A few years have passed, and more photos have come to light.
Several photos of the actual guns of the 155th, still in their gun pits after the battle, have been found. Their origins were not clear until I used Google Earth and other techniques to prove that they were at Sidi N’sir, and indeed I was able to pin down the approximate spots where these guns were emplaced, and so I was able to identify the photos of No.1 gun of F troop, which was far out ahead of the other guns, just below the corner where the attacking tanks had to expose themselves.
I don’t know where you can get full sized copies of these photos – the website that was selling them is closed down. If you need them for research purposes, contact me by email. They are listed athttp://tiger1.info/event-page/Sidi-Nsir-battle

Hi. My grandfather was at Sidi N’ Sir. He also survived being a prisoner in Italy.
His name was Alfred Charles George Clarke. Unfortunately we lost grandad quite s few years ago now but I never forget Sidi N’sir as he called his house that when he came home. He always used to tell the story about Sid isn’t ere!!! Lol.
Again sadly he came home with shrapnel in his head and leg and suffered ftom them both. Always cheerful about his time in said place and told many many stories.
Sad that his memories are of the war.

i believe the english soldier standing up having his details taken is Joe armstrong sargent on the last 25 pounder eagle troop.captured when a tiger tank come around on his flank and they were unable to traverse the gun in time to shoot . his was the only gun not destroyed he spent the 1 1/2 years in 3 different pow camps escaping 3 times the last time hiding under the floor while the russians over ran the camp pushing the germans back . he then walked from north poland to odessa where he got a ship home . joe armstrong is my grandfather

The CO of the 155 Field Battery was Major John Smith RAWORTH not “Rawford” as in the description. John Smith Raworth was the nephew of the Chief Electrical Engineer of the Southern Railway and contemporary press accounts – such as the Evening Telegraph and Post 5/6/1943 have Mrs Alfred Raworth saying what a fine chap he was.

My father in law Sgt Sidney Timmings was on F1 gun at the battle and was one of the survivors at Sidi Nisir, and spent the rest of the war in captivity in Italy and Germany. We have his written memoirs and description of his POW experiences

My great-grandfather Charles Standing No. 6406993 was with the 5th Hampshires and we believe he fought at this battle, I am currently turning his story into a film, which will partly feature the battle of Sidi Nsir, so any extra info would be good

My late uncle fought in this engagement and describes vividly the sustained mortar fire from the Africa Corps forces. He was wounded and found unconscious IATA the end of this fierce battle. He has been kind enough to leave me with interesting photographic material taken of tank and gun battery operations.

My cousin has in his possession a “Beja Badge” and it belonged to his grandfather who we believe was involved in this battle,He was also mentioned in despatches .He also has a book which is some kind of report book in german which says that Gnr Samuel Sutton was a good worker and well turned out soldier of good character and signed by the german commandant the camp number states camp 2o3 we are not sure whether this was in Germany or Austria as he was a Royal Artillery Gunner we believe he was involved in the Battle of Beja AT Sidi Nisir. The Soldier in question was 1148142 Gnr Samuel Sutton R.A. of the 172nd field artillery regiment 155th field gun battery.Where is there a list of the nine survivors of this battle.

My father Hubert (Joe) Bowring 5498770 was part of the 5th Hampshireshe ended up in stalag 8c and was I believe on the long march also he told us very little regards his time in Africa or as a pow any information would be most welcome

Spike Milligan was in North Africa at the time (himself a Gunner in 19 Battery, 56th Heavy Rgt RA) and he mentions this battle in the second book of his memoirs – “Rommel? Gunner Who? – A confrontation in the desert.” – on page 107. To quote:
“They nearly broke through at Hunt’s Gap, but an incredible resistance by 5 Hampshires and 155 Bty RA for over twelve hours (the latter were finally overwhelmed) decimated the Bosch so much – he had to stop.”
By investigating this action, I read of their incredible valour: I think the whole 155th Battery deserves a VC. Every single one of them – brave men indeed!

These photographs come from the German records , the Bundesarchiv. You can try searching on Wikimedia Commons for “Bundesarchiv” and as many of the search options as possible ‘Sidi Nsir’, ‘North Africa’ or ‘Afrika’ ‘February 1943’, etc etc to see if there are any more. It is be possible that the Bundesarchiv has more so might be worth visiting the German site direct.

I was very interested to see these photographs. My Dad was one of the nine survivors. Eventually, after spending time captive in Italy, he was held as a prisoner in Stalag 4c.

I was wondering if you have any more of these photographs.

I have tried to identify him, which I hope may be possible as there were only nine survivors ( interestingly Dad always said seven survivors) and wondered if the young man in the first photograph, wearing the white top, was German or English.